News

Steve Jobs was the co-founder of Apple computers. His vision and drive made Apple what it is today. He has played a large part in the what we have for computers today. For those not aware, Steve Jobs passed away today at the age of 56. You can read one of many articles here

Our prayers and wishes go out to the Jobs family during this difficult time. Steve, you will be missed.

I’m am please to report that the largest workshop that I have conducted concluded with all 17 units functioning. There are now 17+ KFest special edition 2011 a2mp3 cards out there playing all kinds of mp3 files. Really cool to hear podcasts on your apple II. Next month we will tidy up a few loose ends and get the card release to the general public. The code included is an open source demo program found on a prodos 140K image file here:

Kansas Fest is fast approaching and we will be leaving this week. I will be hosting a workshop to build a limited edition pre-release version of the a2mp3 apple II mp3 card. If you are attending and have not signed up, it is not too late. Please note any order placed after July 9 is subject to a 2 week delay. If you have an outstanding order and have not been contacted, your order is scheduled to ship ontime. Normal ordering time will resume after July 25th. I will be available for email contact throughout the event.

After a year on the shelf, the Apple II MP3 is nearing initial completion. The card is designed to work with most Apple II’s except the IIc line and allows you to play MP3′s from your flash pen drive. There are limitations to the device but it will play songs from the root directory of the flash drive. Other uses may include file transfer from flash drive to Apple II and sounds and songs for gaming applications. I’ll see if I can write up a blog before the workshop at KFest this year where you can build the MP3 kit in a workshop setting. Kansas jFest gets exclusive custom MP3 cards in a first time ever custom logo format. The Kansas Fest logo will be on the card and only available at the show. The attendee’s will get first crack to make awesome software programs for the player and with all the outstanding bunch of programmers there, I’m sure it won’t be long before there are several apps available for the MP3 card. More information on KFest can be found on the website here: KFest

The 4 connector expansion board and the 6532 board are now available for sale. Pictures are coming shortly but I wanted to get the word out for those that have been waiting a long time for these. You can order yours today from the STORE page. Please note that we are closed this week for Thanksgiving holiday.

Production is now in full swing and we can now take orders without doing “runs”. This means you can now order without a 4-8 week wait for the Altair. Please keep in mind we are still experiencing heavy volume in orders but wait time is down to 1-2 weeks. Please note that we will not be able to fill orders this week for the Thanksgiving holiday.

There will be an Altair 8800micro workshop at the VCF Midwest 5.0. Come and build a Altair micro and have lots of fun in a relaxed classroom setting. There are only 10 spaces available so don’t miss out. Price of the workshop is only the cost of the kit $199.95. There are going to be 2 options, first is where the front panel is already built and tested making the workshop run about 1-1.5 hours. The other is a full kit that the builder will assemble everything including the front panel. Anything on that option that can not be finished at the exhibit will require the builder to take home and finish.

Well, great news! The new front panel pcb’s arrived today along with prototypes of the front panels. The new panel looks great with switches and appears to fit good. The momentary switches for step, exam/exam next and deposit/deposit next is exactly like the original Altair. I have the switches sitting deeper in the case so only the toggle paddle is out making the switches look smaller.

Here’s a quick picture of the new front panel. The hole cutouts are not perfect due to mfg issue but the production version will look great. If you look close you can see that the top row of switches is close to the bottom row of switches. This is one of the issues I expected to have going from the tiny slide to the much larger toggle switches. Still, way better feel to the machine.

Looking at a upper view you can see that the switches don’t appear to stick out too far and compliment the case just fine. Overall, I’m really happy with the new look of the Altair 8800 micro. The final prototype mainboards are due in Friday or Monday and I’ll get more pictures out of those too.

Welcome to Briel Computers

Here you will find many fun and exciting kits for you to solder together. Our goal is your fun. Now you can enjoy assembling circuit board kits just like the computing pioneers did in the 70's and early 80's. We try to make low-cost fun kits for everybody. We are always here to help with any assistance. Feel free to join our forums and contact me at vince@brielcomputers.com for a forum invite.
Vince Briel